Kevin's Ramblings…

It’s February 1, finally, January is over. It always seems that January takes 3 months to finish up, seems that way but this January we really didn’t even have any serious winter weather in Calgary, which is odd. Calgary is typically very cold and fairly snowy, this year, nothing really. But I digress.

2925 was, all in all, a pretty shitty year and I’m glad we’ve put it behind us.

It started out all right. I got into a new place to live, which I’m leaving in a few weeks due to the lease expiring and the landlord deciding to sell. Well, good luck selling in this shitty market.

I reconnected with JT and had a great couple of months with him including living together for 2.5 months. It started out great, ended in early June with him moving out with no notice and not even letting me know what was up. To this date, we haven’t communicated, well, I’ve tried to reach him but he thinks I’m evil, I guess, and won’t reply. Well, sobeit. He left a bunch of his crap here which I held onto months after I should have. In September, or maybe it was October, I paid for a junk removal company to haul almost all of it away. I’ve kept a few items, including a great Ashley Furniture leather couch and some kitchen stuff, but everything else is gone. I plan on replacing the couch as soon as I’m able in the new place and getting something that’ll be mine, not borrowed or left to me.  I am over JT, but he truly broke my heart and I probably became a bit more bitter than I normally am because of it. I wish him well and I hope life treats him fairly. No hard feelings, no grudges. I’ve moved on, it’s unhealthy and stressful to worry about the past and the things that you cannot change. I learned that a long time ago, and letting go has served me well.

My Aunt Bernie, my favourite relative ever, passed away at the age of 95 in May. Her health had been in steady decline for years, but she definitely had spunk. It was nice seeing family and friends when I visited Ontario for the funeral, including my brother that I only see periodically. Her funeral service was very nice, not religious at all which I appreciated and the eulogy was delivered by Bernie’s cousin and he did a wonderful job.

The job was steady in 2025, one of the good outcomes. I doubt that I will ever umpire for Cal Ripken Calgary again, I had a falling out with their director on-field. Although he’s an adult, he showed the same level of maturity as his players and I told him I’d never umpire for him again. I’m looking forward to umpiring for Babe Ruth Calgary again and am thinking of adding some Baseball Alberta work this year.

Another low point in 2025 was at the end of October when Hera passed, unexpectedly in her sleep. Waking up to a dead dog by the front door is not the way I’d hope for anyone to ever have to experience. Twix mourned her sister for at least two weeks before she was more or less back to normal. I miss my German Shepherd girl and her antics, I hope, if there’s a Rainbow Bridge that she’s playing with Blondie and Zeus is treating her well. Until we meet again my sweet girl.

So, when 2025 wrapped up a month ago, I wasn’t unhappy to see it leave.

This year is starting off on a much better note. I have a new, less expensive vehicle that I’m loving. I bought a 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander right before Christmas. It’s great to drive and even better, the monthly payment is only $430 as opposed to the $1190 I was paying for the truck. The insurance is slightly cheaper as well.

I adopted a new dog on January 9 from the Calgary Humane Society, it’s a boy and his name is Apollo, carrying on the tradition of using Greek god names for my dogs. I’ve had Zeus, Hera and now Apollo. He’s a mixed breed and we aren’t exactly sure what breeds, a guess might be Rottweiler and Black Lab, but only a guess. He doesn’t shed much, perhaps it’ll be a seasonal thing with him. He’s fitting in well with Twix, who he adores. She’s warming up to him, he’s just too energetic for her on occasion.

Lastly, I found a new great place for us to live. It’s a brand new apartment complex in the city’s north-west quadrant. It’s never been lived in before and it’ll save me $400 or so a month over what I’m paying here. We move February 20 and I’m looking to it.

So, good bye 2025 and welcome 2026, I hope you treat us all well. Happy New Year.

This weekend was the National Conservative convention and it was held in Calgary. A friend of mine who I met in 2011 when I used to be involved with politics was in town this weekend for the convention and I offered to pick her up from the airport. In turn, she offered to buy dinner on Saturday evening, very nice of her.

I suggested that we head to a great smokehouse downtown called Palomino. They have the best deep fried pickles that I’ve ever had and everything I’ve had there was excellent. My friend went to Palomino on Friday evening and found the atmosphere a little too noisy for her tastes and she decided she wanted to go somewhere else.

I offered a few suggestions in Calgary or an amazing Indian place in Airdrie, but she suggested that we go to Caesar’s Steakhouse instead. I jokingly asked when she had won the lottery, as Caesar’s is probably one of the top 5 restaurants in Calgary. She said “don’t worry about money”. Well, ok, I won’t, I made reservations.

I picked up the two ladies from their hotel at around 645pm last evening for a 7pm reservation, the restaurant is just down the street from the hotel. Caesar’s is upper end and I wore the suit I purchased back when my aunt passed away in 2025. It was only the second time I wore it.

We were seated and I had my back to one of the BBQ pits where they cook the steaks, it was nice and warm and oddly, I was cold last night so it was great.

They started us off with a variety of bread, garlic and cheese which was absolutely amazing. We shared a Caesar salad that was prepared table side and it was the best Caesar dressing that I’ve ever had. I also had a small bowl of French onion soup, it was flavourful, but lacked cheese that all French onion soup I’ve ever had has. My main course was a 10.5oz New York strip, Neptune which included a couple of shrimp and asparagus as well as a twice baked potato. The steak was good, but in all honesty, I’ve made a steam at least that good at home, I was mildly disappointed. For dessert, I had creme caramel and it was delicious.

All in all, the meal was excellent, but I find the value just not to be there. I’ll admit it was the best Caesar salad that I’ve ever had, but the prices were a bit high, thankfully it was paid for and I thank you for that, Donna.

We chatted and casually ate dinner and dessert over about 2.5 hours and decided to head out. I dropped off the ladies at their hotel and headed home, it had been a long day. Having insomnia at the moment, I was awake a mere 5 hours later.

I’m dropping them off at their airport for their return flight to Ontario this morning and then things will.ve back to normal. It was great to see an old friend and I hope we can get together when I’m back in Ontario in August.

On the apartment front, I have paid the security deposit and I can now sign the lease. I move in on February 20 and I’m looking forward to a fresh start in a new place.

I’m hoping everyone reading this entry had a great weekend for themselves.

I work 12 hour shifts, 4 on 3 off 3 on 4 off, so I have long weekends every weekend. I’m currently in a 3-day weekend.

Recently, my days start around 3am, insomnia. I wake up and I know I’m done sleeping and luckily, dogs don’t care, they get hot, go pee and go back to sleep on a dog bed, or the couch, or the kitchen floor, they don’t really care.

Yesterday, I went to Denny’s for breakfast with a former coworker, Denny’s has a great breakfast and pretty reliable food that isn’t too expensive. I took the dogs to a dog park in the new neighborhood that we’ll be living in and then acted as an Uber driver and picked up a friend from Ontario who’s in Calgary for the weekend for the Conservative convention. At $700, it’s out of this world expensive, although you get a large chunk of that as a tax deductible contribution.  Still, the content is pretty boring so I’ll pass…

I made an excellent dinner. Sauteed chicken breasts, diced tomatoes, sweet Thai chili sauce and cheese on a hollowed out giant circular French style bread. OMG was it ever good.

I ate about half of it and the other half will shortly be breakfast.

It was a relaxing even watching some TV and then about 5 hours of sleep. Not really enough to function at 💯 but close, a nap may be in order.

I’m going to a Chinese buffet for lunch in Airdrie where I used to live with a friend that I haven’t seen since about May. Should be good.

Tomorrow, I’m going for dinner with the friend I picked up at the airport, we are headed downtown to Palomino, a smokehouse BBQ place, amazing food and the best deep fried pickles you’ll ever have.

That’ll take care of the weekend, back to work on Sunday and a 3-day workweek. I’m moving February 20, so that’ll be here before I know it. It’ll be a fresh start for the relatively new year and a marked improvement over the shitty year that 2025 was.

I hope you enjoy your weekend, once it arrives after the work day today.

A week ago now, I discovered that I had not been paid for statutory holidays in 2025. I am not sure why I didn’t notice during the year that my cheque never really changed, guess I wasn’t really checking carefully at all.

So, I submitted a ticket with HR and we worked with payroll to submit the time that I had missed. In our investigation, with our new payroll system, we discovered that I was also overpaid OT in January, February and March of 2025. I work 12 hour shifts, and for everything over 8 hours, I was paid time and a half and shouldn’t have been.

So, IBM owes me stat holiday pay, and in turn, I owe them for the additional paid time. They have a policy that when there needs to be a clawback in salary that it’s taken over time so it’s not disruptive and employees can continue to pay bills and what not.

Late Tuesday, I checked my lay statement and was shocked to discover that ALL of the 2024 clawback had been applied to my cheque that will be issued on Friday and that my net pay was $0.  Not good.

Anyway, after quite a bit of back and forth, I think I’ll get my normal pay on Monday including, I hope, all of the missed time and then we can start a schedule to slowly repay the overpayment.  This is all theoretical, of course and I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them, so, we’ll see anyway.

I should get an additional almost $4000 less taxes, the keyword being “should”. I await Monday to see what I actually get and if I need to get a hold of HR and payroll again. For the most part, HR has been very helpful, payroll, not so much.

Wish me some luck.

Well, it’s been absolute ages since I’ve posted, a ton has gone on, that’s for sure.

Let’s just say that 2025 was not the greatest of years.

2026 is starting off on a pretty high note.

I purchased a new vehicle, new to me anyway. I am now driving a 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander. My monthly payment went from $1190 on my Dodge Ram 1500 to $430 per month for the Outlander.

I’m moving February 20, exactly one year to the day that I moved into this current place. My landlord isn’t renewing my lease, he says he’s selling, well, good luck selling in this market, but whatever. I’m moving into a brand new luxury apartment complex in Calgary’s North West. I’m really looking forward to it, not the actual move of course, just the new place. I’ve hired movers so my job will be packing and unpacking.

I’ve gotten myself a new dog, Apollo.  He’s a mixed breed, I think I’ll get a DNA kit to see what he is exactly.

He’s fitting in well, getting along with his older sister Twix. I unfortunately lost Hera at the end of October, she passed in her sleep.

I also purchased a new cell phone, it’s a Google Pixel 10 XL Pro. I’m liking it, as I have with previous Pixel phones. I have a case on order, it should be here this week, I hope.

So, 2026 is shaping up well and good riddance to 2025.

I’ve been bad at keeping up with blogging. I’ve been keeping quite busy and have lots to write about, from a boring point of view, but finding time to actually write a post has eluded me.

The last week has zoomed by and it’s already Tuesday on a 4-day workweek for me. Last week I had a 4-day weekend and it went by quickly.

I umpired just 2 baseball games but they were both great baseball games. I’m umpiring back in the Cal Ripken league in Calgary which is the 12u team that goes down to the Cal Ripken World Series where I had the honour of umpiring in back in 2017. The ball is really good quality, I’m surprised at how good those 12 year olds are. It comes down to how the program is run and my friend who organizes it is a great coach and has put together an amazing program. I umpire every Friday evening for Cal Ripken and am mentoring a great young umpire who’s my partner every week.

On the Babe Ruth side of things, they had a LOT of umpires sign up this year, a problem area taken care of, finally. There are over 80 umpires in total which has allowed me to cut down the number of games I’m doing, which is good and bad. I’m only doing 1-2 games per week for Babe Ruth and that’s fine with me. I’ve been able to be very picky about what games I take and what ball diamonds I umpire at. The AAA league has been great and I have a few AA and A games scheduled as well.

In late July, I’m off work for a few days and will be umpiring the regional 14u tournament so that’ll be fun.

Work has been steady but very, very slow. My client has rock solid infrastructure which leads to very few tickets for issues, so, basically we are in stand by in case something goes wrong and this far, not much has. If I were younger, I’d find it too boring and would likely move on, but at the twilight of my career, I’m ok with a slow pace.

All in all, life is good. I hope it is with you as well.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks… I’m settled into a 4 on 3 off, 3 on 4 off schedule at work. I love the 3 and 4 day weekends, that’s excellent, and working 12-hour shifts is easy.

Umpiring season, aka baseball season has started and I’ve been busy with that as well. I’m not taking too many games, a few on the weekends and one or two during the week.

JT and I are going to the Y and that’s awesome. The steam room and hot tub are very relaxing, a great end to the day for sure. I try to make it daily, some days just get away from you is all. I wish they were open earlier and stayed open later, they may be on summer hours now, unsure, hopefully they’ll expand in the fall when more people are going.

So, time is just flying by, and, in general I’m keeping out of trouble, so that’s a good thing.

In sad news, my favourite relative, my Aunt Bernie passed away yesterday afternoon. It wasn’t unexpected, she was 95 after all. There will be some sort of service in the next bit so I’ll be making a trip back to Ontario. I must admit, I’m not a huge fan of Ontario any more. I grew up there, but it’s not a great province. Alberta is definitely home and has been for some time.

Enjoy the rest of the week, the weekend will be here before you know it.

I woke up this morning to a dusting of snow. It’s April 22, so we are a month into spring, but, this is Alberta. We’ve had some nice warm weather, then it’s followed up by cold weather and snow. The snow won’t stick, it’s going to be about 10C today, but for now, it looks festive – if it was Christmas Day.

We had a decent enough weekend. I umpired a double header for Babe Ruth Calgary. Two excellent games. We had a 15 minute hail delay in game two. What excitement.

I didn’t go into work on Monday, I wasn’t feeling well and had absolutely no sleep from the night before. I’m feeling much better this morning and actually slept last night.

Back to the regular routine. Work, dinner, walk the dogs and head to the YMCA. I’m hardly watching any TV any longer, but that’s OK. The evenings zoom by and we often don’t have enough time to get everything done. I’m liking it.

JT and I are heading down to Crowsnest Pass on Friday. I’m going to retrieve my parents antique dresser from a friend who’s been looking after it since I left CNP almost 2 years ago now. We are then heading for dinner at the Indian restaurant and then heading home in the early evening. Should be a good day for a road trip. We’ll bring the dogs as well and will go for a walk before dinner.

This weekend is the Babe Ruth Calgary umpiring clinic. I’m helping out. It’ll be good to mentor the younger umpires. The Supervisor is going to use me to evaluate and train some of the younger recruits this summer, that’ll keep me out of trouble, maybe.

JTs birthday is May 5, we are heading to Banff May 4 and spending the night, should be an awesome trip. We are planning on taking the gondola to the top of the mountain and doing some hiking. I’m toying with the idea of bringing Hera up there with us, we’ll see I guess. The dogs are staying in a boarding/spa facility overnight. They probably won’t like it a ton, but it won’t kill em.

I guess it’ll be a bit busy over the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to the adventures.